Welcome to another volume in a series of communications that seeks to provide CSA member schools with updates, findings, commentary, and important school-based implications of a diverse range of research and innovation projects and articles of interest relating to Christian schooling.
IMPORTANT UPDATE: Student Flourishing in Australian Christian Schools Research Project
Over the summer, the statisticians at the Human Flourishing Program at Harvard undertook the full analysis of the data for the CSA capstone research project entitled: Student Flourishing in Australian Christian Schools. We are now interrogating these pages of graphs/findings and the significant and illuminating findings that have been revealed.
This has necessitated further exploration of specific results and trends identified in the initial analyses in more rigorous and nuanced ways. For example, the overall flourishing index scores for ALL participants (n = 21960 using Yr 7 as a baseline index score) revealed that there were some findings relating to gender (and in particular female students) that were worthy of a much deeper analysis. The landmark decision by our federal government to ban social media for children under 16 is unprecedented legislation from a government anywhere in the world and arises from the exponential rises in mental health/suicides/anxiety and in our young Australian students and especially females under 16 (with many as young as 12).
The student flourishing data findings arising from this project are reinforcing these trends and are going to further illuminate this conversation regarding the impact on our young females as they navigate through their secondary school years. This also means that the promotion and publication of these findings will be highly topical and well received in the public square.
The statistically significant findings in the first analyses have also revealed some very positive and important themes regarding the positive role of Christian practices and the perceived importance of spirituality in students and their overall flourishing scores across year levels.
The analyses also revealed that a student’s belief in a personal God and evidence of higher overall flourishing scores were statistically highly significant across nearly 22,000 participants.
These findings are indicative of a number of other statistically significant results that have been identified in these first analyses and raise further questions regarding gender, year levels and individual school differences as variables in these findings.
In light of these results, and the emerging rich narrative that the data is revealing, we are extending our analyses to investigate these very important themes further.
This will mean that the proposed infographics that will be disseminated to schools will now be able to include these new analyses and I will provide further updates regarding these findings leading up to formal launch at the National Leaders Summit (NLS) in August.
In the lead up to this launch, a video resource featuring a 20 min overview and summary of the Student Flourishing in Australian Christian Schools will be completed by Dr Christina Hinton Research associate Human Flourishing Program at Harvard (NB – this resource will not be disseminated until after the formal launch in August).
Once completed, the final infographic report that will be sent to schools will also provide the National Executive Summary Report on the findings (which will be coauthored by Dr Christina Hinton at the Human Flourishing Program and myself).
I will also be providing a selected summary of some of the significant findings in the Student Flourishing project at the State Conferences in July.
The Student Flourishing in Australian Christian Schools project will culminate with an official launch and publication of the final report and findings at the National Leaders' Summit in Melbourne on August 20-22, which will focus on the theme of “Flourishing” and will include a range of world class leaders speaking on this theme.
Registration details for the NLS 2025 event will be released soon – CSA would love to see you there!
Thank you for your participation in this important project and for your patience and understanding as the researchers interrogate and finalise the compilation of these important findings.
We are also grateful and acknowledge our Project Partners: The School Photographer and NGS Super.
Human Flourishing Program / Baylor University Global Flourishing Study
Closely related to the Student Flourishing in Australian Schools is a much larger adult flourishing project being undertaken by the Human Flourishing Program at Harvard and Baylor University. The Global Flourishing Study (GFS) is an unprecedented large-scale capstone research project that is applying a multi-year, longitudinal methodology to explore the domains of adult flourishing across 23 countries and a staggering 240,000 participants.
This groundbreaking project includes the data collection and management expertise of Gallup and the stakeholder coordination and leadership of the Center for Open Science. The study seeks to investigate: What does it mean to live well? To be truly healthy? To thrive? Researchers and clinicians have typically answered these questions by focusing on the presence or absence of various pathologies: disease, family dysfunction, mental illness, or criminal behavior. But such a “deficits” approach tells only so much about what makes for a life well-lived – about what it means to flourish.
Over the next five-plus years, the project will analyse longitudinal data on the patterns, determinants, and social, psychological, spiritual, political, economic, and health-related constituents and causes of human flourishing. The scope of this project is unprecedented and likely to yield valuable insights for global survey research using this type of methodology.
The findings of the CSA project on student flourishing will be informed and enhanced by this groundbreaking study. You can find out more about the insightful work of the Global Flourishing Study on the button below.
NB. It is hoped that one of the key researchers on this groundbreaking flourishing project will be presenting at our National Leaders Summit on 20-22 August in Melbourne.
Flourishing Schools: PeopleBench State of the Sector Report 2024
PeopleBench have recently released their fifth State of the Sector report, which explores the perspectives of over 200 principals and other senior leaders in Australian schools. This report summarises the results of a survey conducted in March – July 2024 designed to gather the input of Australian educators about the challenges and opportunities they face in the school workforce.
In this 2024 report, PeopleBench have chosen to focus specifically on the experiences and views of leaders in the sector.
This report aims to provide a glimpse of what school leaders see gazing out at the workforce through their lens and highlights both the struggles and the strengths about what the future of work in the sector should look like, and how to take advantage of the opportunities that can get us there.
You can access the Report HERE.
Release of the Latest Cardus Education Survey US Report | Swaner, Cheng and Eckert
What difference does attending a Christian school make? The answer to this question is valuable not only to families deciding on schooling options, but also to Christian school educators who are seeking to understand the value proposition of the educational program they offer. The Cardus Education Survey Report for US school was published late last year and builds on earlier Cardus Reports undertaken in the US, Canada and Australia.
- High school experiences and quality: Graduates from Protestant, Catholic, and nonreligious independent schools are significantly more positive in their ratings than those from public schools. Those from Protestant and Catholic schools believe that their schools prepared them well to have a vibrant spiritual life.
- Educational attainment and employment outcomes: Graduates from Catholic or nonreligious independent schools are more likely to attain a graduate degree and have higher income levels. Those from Protestant and Catholic schools are more likely to value having a job that is directly helpful to others.
- Civic behaviors and values: Graduates from Protestant schools and homeschooling have higher rates of charitable giving, regardless of income, and are more likely to volunteer than are graduates from public schools. Graduates from nonreligious independent schools are more likely to cite community involvement and tolerance as very important.
- Mental health and well-being: Graduates who were homeschooled report the lowest levels of depression and anxiety. Graduates from Protestant and Catholic schools have the highest levels of life satisfaction, though this difference disappears after controlling for respondents’ demographic characteristics.
- Faith formation: The strongest sector-level effects are observed here. Graduates from Protestant schools or homeschooling are much more likely to report that they believe in God and life after death and regularly engage in religious practices.
You access the PDF version of the full Report HERE.
Just Schools Podcast with Jon Eckert: Faith, Sports, and Education with Paul Putz
The Just Schools Podcast is an excellent podcast hosted by Jon Eckert, the Copple Endowed Chair in Educational Leadership Co-director, Baylor Center for School Leadership. Jon is a good friend of CSA and is going to be a keynote speaker at some of our upcoming State Conferences in July.
In this episode of the Just Schools Podcast, Jon interviews Paul Putz, director of the Faith & Sports Institute at Baylor University, where he helps to lead and develop online programming and curriculum as well as assisting with communications and strategic planning.
They discuss his journey from high school teacher and coach to historian, diving into insights from his new book, The Spirit of the Game: American Christianity and Big-Time Sports. Putz reflects on the role of sports in K-12 education and the importance of resilience, collaboration, and integrating faith into leadership in both education and sports.
The Just Schools Podcast is brought to you by the Baylor Center for School Leadership. Each week, we'll talk to catalytic educators who are doing amazing work.
Listen to the podcast HERE.
The Tie That Binds: Relationships in Christian Schools | Matthew H. Lee
Relationships, especially with other believers, are some of the most precious things we enjoy in this life. They give us a foretaste of heaven as they are the one thing we get to take from this life into the one to come. As John Fawcett writes in his beloved hymn, “Blest Be the Tie That Binds,” it is a blessing for believers’ hearts to be bound together in Christian love, for “perfect love and friendship reign through all eternity.”
We should strive to promote and protect relationships—between and among faculty and staff, students, and families—in our schools. After all, David described brotherly unity as pleasant (Psalm 133:1), and Christ commanded us to seek peace and reconciliation with one another (Matthew 18:15-20). But not much research describes the nature and importance of relationships, particularly in a Christian school context… Read the full blog post HERE.
A flexible map of flourishing: The dynamics and drivers of flourishing, well-being, health, and happiness | Lomas, Pawelski, and VanderWeele
Concepts like flourishing, well-being, health, and happiness are of increasing interest across many fields, from psychology and medicine to politics and economics. However, these terms are used in diverse and contested ways, which makes it hard to find common ground and understanding.
To attempt to help remedy the confusion, this paper offers an overarching conceptual 'map'within which these concepts can be situated,thereby providing a common language and framework for their consideration.
Read more HERE.
Flourishing Together: A Christian Vision for Students, Educators and Schools | Swaner and Wolfe
Are you looking for something to read and reinvigorate your vision for flourishing within your Christian school community? I commend this book again to you written by dear friends of CSA, Dr Lynn Swaner and Andy Wolfe, who were key presenters on this work at our National Leaders Summit in 2023.
How do students, educators, and schools flourish together—especially in an era of increasing pressure from standardised testing, growing challenges to student mental health and well-being, and frequent educator burnout? The goal of this book is to call Christian educators back to a better vision of flourishing within a robust theological framework, with the practical guidance necessary for implementation. To accomplish this, Lynn Swaner and Andy Wolfe take readers through an exploration of five essential domains identified through extensive empirical research—purpose, relationships, learning, resources, and well-being.
An ideal resource for professional development and strategic planning, Flourishing Together adheres to the principle that “anything that is worth building cannot be built alone.” Thus, the vision for flourishing here is one in which the school community is understood as an interconnected ecosystem, in which “each one’s flourishing is dependent on their flourishing together.” Accordingly, teachers and administrators will be inspired and equipped to reshape their schools as places where they—alongside their students—can flourish together in a community of abundant life.
Discover More.